Balls!

By Tom

Istanbul, Turkey

In Central America, Julia did a fair job of learning enough Spanish to exchange pleasantries with the locals, or at least to say to a bus driver “Don’t go yet, my boyfriend is still in the bathroom!” While in Turkey, we’ve similarly tried to learn a few of the basics. Hello. How are you? Please and thank you. One, two, three. Learning these few phrases has proven difficult to our English speaking tongues and our attempts at communication have been met as often as not with blank stares lacking any recognition of our words.

This was explained at least in part when we accompanied Emre and his three other Turkish friends for dinner at a restaurant in Bozcaada. The four young Turks are all college or grad students at American-run schools in Istanbul and speak English nearly fluently. We told them the one phrase we were having the most trouble with was “thank you.”

They asked us how we were saying it and when Julia said “Ta-she-kur” their eyes went wide and they all started laughing.

One of the girls corrected us “No no, it’s te-she-kur.”

“Oh, what have we been saying?” asked Julia.

“Balls,” said Emre.

“Like… as in?”

“Yup,” said Emre. “Like ‘balls.’”

So, apparently we’ve been showing our appreciation in Turkey, to everyone from shopkeepers to waiters with a hearty cry of “balls!” That might explain the looks on their faces.